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Old Dec 5, 2022 | 6:18 pm
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oneworld Million Miler?

With oneworld trying to work more closely together, do you think they will ever pursue a OW million miler program? I think not, but with most of my domestic travel on Alaska and all of my international travel on partner airlines, it would be nice (and I'd already be there between my current Alaska status + my balance on AA)
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Old Dec 5, 2022 | 8:06 pm
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Originally Posted by cpworld
With oneworld trying to work more closely together, do you think they will ever pursue a OW million miler program? I think not, but with most of my domestic travel on Alaska and all of my international travel on partner airlines, it would be nice (and I'd already be there between my current Alaska status + my balance on AA)
OW is not a dictatorship or a joint venture. Oneworld airlines have never worked closely together in the past. Nor will they in the future. Some OW airlines work together and others compete head to head.
OW used have a wide range of RTW & circle fares. Those have been reduced----> less co-operation.

Most OW airlines do not use the term "miles". For those that do or did the measurement was not consistent. Distance travelled and/or ff (redeemable) mile earned
With OW ffp's miles/points/avios are not 1 to 1 to earn or burn.
Some OW ffp's have lifetime status OWE OWS OWR
And too many people in the AS forum over think what oneworld is.

Last edited by Mwenenzi; Dec 5, 2022 at 8:22 pm
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Old Dec 6, 2022 | 9:28 pm
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I don't know what AS offers for a Million Miler program, but AA and BA have lifetime status. BA is better by far if you can achieve it since it goes to OW Emerald, while AA only goes as high as Sapphire.
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Old Dec 7, 2022 | 1:05 am
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Originally Posted by dvs7310
I don't know what AS offers for a Million Miler program, but AA and BA have lifetime status. BA is better by far if you can achieve it since it goes to OW Emerald, while AA only goes as high as Sapphire.
Alaska gives you MVP gold at a million, which is Sapphire. I only have 250K on Alaska at this point. I have 750K on American from the old days but came into Alaska through the Virgin America acquisition. I'm not chasing million-miler but curious how the programs work on other airlines.
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Old Dec 7, 2022 | 8:44 am
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Originally Posted by cpworld
Alaska gives you MVP gold at a million, which is Sapphire. I only have 250K on Alaska at this point. I have 750K on American from the old days but came into Alaska through the Virgin America acquisition. I'm not chasing million-miler but curious how the programs work on other airlines.
AA at 1 million is only Gold which is only OW Ruby. I wouldn't go chasing that unless you're going to make it to 2 million. AA's lifetime program is pretty lame to be quite honest, at least compared to AS or UA. BA's takes a lot of work, but is really nice if you get it.
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Old Dec 9, 2022 | 6:57 am
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I believe AA and AS are the only OneWorld airlines from a country which still uses miles.
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Old Dec 11, 2022 | 3:31 am
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Originally Posted by cpworld
Alaska gives you MVP gold at a million, which is Sapphire. I only have 250K on Alaska at this point. I have 750K on American from the old days but came into Alaska through the Virgin America acquisition. I'm not chasing million-miler but curious how the programs work on other airlines.
The fact that you ditched AAdvantage for Alaska Mileage Plan - when you can credit AS flights to AAdvantage - suggests that you care far more for domestic upgrades than earning lifetime status. Otherwise you would have kept earning AAdvantage miles for both ongoing AA status and long-term "million miler" status.

Yes, other OW airlines have lifetime status. Only the 2 US programs use "miles" as a method of earning it.
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Old Dec 11, 2022 | 3:40 pm
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Originally Posted by craigthemif
The fact that you ditched AAdvantage for Alaska Mileage Plan - when you can credit AS flights to AAdvantage - suggests that you care far more for domestic upgrades than earning lifetime status. Otherwise you would have kept earning AAdvantage miles for both ongoing AA status and long-term "million miler" status.

Yes, other OW airlines have lifetime status. Only the 2 US programs use "miles" as a method of earning it.
I didn't really ditch AA outright. I earned my AA miles way back in the 90's, including quite a few Alaska flights between SJC-SEA. Then had kids, changed jobs, was self employed for a while and my infrequent travel was on whatever was cheapest. When I started to travel more frequently again in 2012, it was still only like 6-8 trips a year and having experienced Virgin Atlantic a few times I decided to stick with Virgin America. Their relatively small network matched where I needed to go and heavy road warriors stuck with the larger airlines, so my silver status meant I usually scored upgrades (to their premium seats, not first class). When Alaska bought VX I became part of that program and I've been pretty happy with it.

You are correct that I do prioritize upgrades over million-miler status for now. But when I earned the AA miles (and before that 650K UA miles -- which was an intentional ditch) I was not aware of million miler programs and certainly not really thinking about lifetime status for retirement that was decades away. Now that a few of those decades have passed, it is something that I'm starting to pay attention to. I probably have another 10 years of heavy business travel and I expect I'll hit MM on Alaska. After that I expect I'll focus more on international travel rather than domestic. Not really sure if it would make sense to pursue MM on AA at some point, since 2MM seems to be their sweet spot and I'm very far away from that.
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